Renaissance Sanya Haitang Bay Resort

This resort has a huge outdoor lagoon pool surrounded by tropical gardens. Beach was very clean and quiet. Breakfast was ok. Free shuttle bus run to CDF mall, downtown, and Atlantis. I received a room upgrade to a sea view room from the balcony I can see sunrise from sea level.

Due to COVID less hotel guests and very quite and relaxed our entire stay. Few steps to the beach, looks like their private one as not many people also bit far from other hotels in Haitang. We had Thai food at their Thail restaurant. Tastes great and nice service. Room was not new but clean and comfortable . Swimming pool was big and water was clean enough.

Room - a little run down and musty. Sliding doors don’t work well. Mini bar empty. Coffee capsules not replenished so I had to remind housekeeping. Also left some dirty cups and some food leftovers unwashed and uncleared. Bathrobe is wrinkled and looked worn. Only 2 bath towels provided as most hotels we’ve been to provide 4. Limited number of USB ports, especially by the bed Room is big & clean. Acceptable. Breakfast - 95% Chinese clientele. 80% Chinese food. 100% wet market noise & craziness. Poor quality breakfast Bacon looks like spam swimming in some boiled water. Salads are dripping wet. No one taught them to spin dry salad leaves. Mostly noodles, fried rice, fried dough fritters, deep fried mantou, etc. Not my kind of breakfast. Breads are mostly toast and some jam. Liquid yogurts. Standard egg station. Let’s just say I don’t look forward to this breakfast. And breakfasts during holidays matter alot to me. Star Bar - menu looks good but Perrier is over priced at 60 rmb for a small bottle. Vs 38 rmb for the same in the lobby lounge. Plus a service charge on top of that. I complained and they took it off our bill & also gave us a fruit plate. Product pricing should be consistent throughout the property. Staff are inexperienced. Mostly Trainees who don’t know the menu or are not able to answer questions related to the menu For every question I asked in Chinese, I got a blank look back. Or looking for someone else to ask. Buffet dinner - we went twice so far as there isn’t any other choice. (Hotel is in the middle of nowhere and Eleme shows up limited choices for delivery and only Chinese food). We went the first time at 8.30pm and was told the buffet closes at 9pm. We felt 30 mins is good enough but they actually start clearing at 8.40pm. It’s really annoying to see staff coming in with trolleys and busy packing up the food and serving plates. The hotel also only provide small plates for the buffet, which cannot hold much food nor the salad leaves, hence forcing you to do multiple runs. Same for breakfast. We went the second time at 7.30pm so as not to be rushed. There’s a Filipino duo providing live music. Its actually quite awful, like nails on the blackboard. The female singer is ok but the male should just stick to the key board. Grounds - big. Tries to be like Bali or Thailand. Pool or pools are in a weird & very elongated shape. It’s a mix of a poor tacky theme park with some kind of a carousel, and petting zoo with animals here and there. Rabbits, turtles, pheasants, ducks, geese, etc. There’s a train that runs through the grounds too. Unbelievable. Very tacky and catering to Chinese families, and I guess Chinese kids who like all the animals by the pool. In the evening, everything is lighted up in multi coloured lights. Very kitsch. The only saving grace is that the pool area is quiet in the afternoons as the Chinese guests hide indoors to be away from the sun. So it’s peaceful. But come dusk till night, the pool is populated and noisy. Overall the grounds are beautiful but I suspect the local hotel owner wanted to add in all the theme park and petting zoo elements to liven things up. I’m sure this is not in the DNA of Renaissance nor the SPG group. The staff are quite nice overall and do try. But they need more training and help. And I’ve not seen a manager nor GM on the hotel grounds. Overall, not a place I’d recommend. Looking for somewhere else to move to.